Two Killers Walk Into A Party
The world had become black and grey, a sea of suits and cocktail dresses. Duela stood on the edge of the world, back against a wall hung with the kind of paintings that belonged in a museum. Her one hand she held an out of place can of cola from a stop on the way and the other was buried in the pocket of her suit pants completing the awkward package out of place here where the rich and famous gathered.
She made a game out of identifying who was who as people moved around in small groups of three or four, they were the fish orbiting the sharks, individuals who stood still and yet the others moved between them vying for favor. Kings and prime ministers, CEOs and celebrities, it was like a New York Times crossword puzzle come to life, or a five by five 'bingo' card begging her to yell out and win a prize!
Kate wouldn't like that though Duela was beginning to wonder how much she wanted to do what Kate would like, the woman who hardly lived in her own luxurious apartment, still managed a 'no-nonsense' attitude that had only made sense after breaking into her room and seeing the military academy medals. It was a new kind of prison only the cell was ninety floors up and the walls were made of glass. When Kate had insisted they attend the Wayne Charity Gala Duela had agreed quickly, excited for a chance to get out, as long as she wouldn't be forced into a dress.
The Gala was the biggest event in Gotham but it wasn't just a big Gotham event, international leaders in every sphere from politics to business took the time to show off their expensive cars and hand-tailored suits while making generous donations for even more generous tax breaks. It was almost the perfect joke, if only the teenage girl with a criminal record and wearing an ill-fitting suit didn't feel like somehow she had become the punchline.
The Charity Gala has been held annually for nearly three generations of Waynes, originally exclusive to the family manor, since the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne the family foundation had taken the reins to allow the more reclusive Bruce Wayne his space. Now it changed location every year, the year before it had been held at city hall with the full endorsement of the mayor, this year it had found itself a more traditional venue when Ilse Arcane, CEO of Blackriver Environment Co, made a successful bid to host it at her own private manor outside of the city proper along the edge of the unfortunately named Slaughter Swamp.
Duela wondered if there were crocodiles in the swamp, if she went now and was lucky they'd eat her alive before someone tried to strike up a conversation with her.
"Duela."
Too late. It was Kate Kane, Gotham socialite, and yet looking just as uncomfortable in a dress as Duela felt being here at all.
"How are you feeling?" The red-headed woman asked leaning against the wall and sharing a weary sigh that Duela couldn't help but share.
"I think the soda was a mistake, is there anyone here you'd like to see covered in projectile vomit?" Duela snickered but found only a harsh glare. I'll feel better once I liven things up a little, maybe I should spike the punch?" It was a joke.
"They're drinking champagne that comes pre-spiked and you're underage, so I better not see you touching the stuff." Not that Kate understands jokes Duela rolled her eyes internally.
"Yes drill sergeant!" She gave a mock salute instead, ignoring the glare that followed it. "Don't know why you brought me along though, I can't imagine these folks would be happy if they knew they were standing within pie throwing distance of a criminal."
"Duela, you know that-" Kate began to speak.
"I'm afraid Miss that you'll find the kind of people at these events are all too familiar with criminals in suits. And I don't mean you or I." The man who interjected managed to get too close too quickly before either of them noticed and they both stepped back in surprised. He was tall and with startlingly white hair that should have made him impossible to miss at a distance, and to complete his ridiculous image he wore a black eye patch over his left eye. "Sorry to interrupt, I saw you standing here and though we haven't professionally met Miss Kane I thought it about time for an introduction, my name is-."
"-Slade Wilson." Kate finished through clenched teeth. "You know I don't believe your name was on the guest list, shall I call my father, the head of security, and find out?"
"Not necessary, it was a simple mix-up. They've got my name down as Gus Oden." To make his point the man Kate called Slade reached into his jacket and pulled out an invitation addressed to Gus Oden. "And if we were to check the guest list I'm sure we'd find your young friend here isn't on it either. We aren't introduced yet, what is your name?"
Duela stared hard at the stranger, her brow furrowed in deep concentration, "You look like a pirate," she said as if coming to a sudden decision.
"What-"
"-but you're missing the peg leg. I can fix that lickety split, I'm a wonder with a butcher knife." She finished pulling out the knife she stole from the buffet table earlier, pockets are a kleptomaniacs best friend.
"Feisty. Reminds me how much I hate children." Slade lifted his head up with a sneer. "Give your father my regards Miss Kane, they have put a lot of effort into this party." The man spun on his heel, his legs carrying him speedily into the crowd where even as obvious as he should be Duela felt like she needed to work to notice him; how did he disappear so effortlessly in a crowd?
"Duela I need you to do me a favor." Kate turned seriously to the girl as soon as the man was out of earshot. "I have to go talk to my father. Can you discreetly follow that man, don't approach him. And if he goes somewhere secluded just stay put, he is very dangerous."
"Can do kangaroo!" Duela considered if the salute gag was already past its due date. There wasn't time for a decision because Kate was already disappearing toward the entrance with bullheaded determination, and the white hair was just a flash in the crowd. Without a delay Duela began to follow it, tracking it through the crowds against the pale pink-beige of the walls.
It seemed like Duela would have to do the one thing that always got her in trouble, what she was told.
He moved fast, never enough to be anything more than a moment of annoyance as he brushed through the guests but always quick enough to keep her on her toes. She didn't have his physique but she was smaller and where he made openings, she found them, ignoring the impropriety of ducking under the arms of world leaders. They were sheep, and everything about the way he moved marked him as a predator, what did that make her?
He shouldn't have been hard to follow regardless of talent, you could only do so much with stark white hair and a pirate patch, which made it even more frustrating when Duela found herself turning a corner along one hallway and into a large hall- wait was that Katy Perry? No, focus Duela, focus, she berated herself -and he was gone. Disappeared into thin air. Fuck.
Her eyes darted left and right, a glimpse of silver, through an exterior door and into the garden. Was the garden secluded? What would Kate do?
You should follow him, he seems harmless and nothing could go wrong! Thanks Kate-Voice-In-My-Head, Duela thought and moved through the archway and into the open garden. Where the main house was an example in derivative architecture, faux Old Gotham styles mixed in with more current designs that marked it as decidedly lacking the culture of the city, the garden was the opposite. It was opulent and open, growing from a carefully maintained edge near the house and growing wider before disappearing without a border into the swamp as if suddenly swallowed by the wilds. It was carved into small alcoves of thick hedges that marked out the presence of man against nature. There were still people here but fewer and they were here for a different reason, some needed air, a break from the dangerous social games going on inside; others simply needed a drag and held their cigarettes defensively.
Silver streak again. Deeper into the garden. She chased. An alcove, a bad idea. Too late, turning the corner. Thud, someone waiting-
Something was wrong, it was him standing in front of her, or a good approximation. Silver hair? Check. Eye patch? Check. Middle-aged man with the body of a predator? Well the young girl who couldn't be an adult yet did have the body of a predator. Half check.
"Wah-" She yelped lamely after colliding and stumbling back, the other girl was made of sturdier stuff and barely flinched.
"Can I help you?" The silver haired girl demanded her single eye focusing angrily on Duela. Just be yourself, out in the garden on a stroll, easy, she thought.
"Knock knock." Okay too much of myself, she resisted the urge to obscure her face with her palm, were her cheeks red? No one could tell when she was wearing her face.
"Who's there?" The girl smirked, she was playing along.
"Deja."
"Deja who?"
"Knock knock. Get it? Cause you said- oh nevermind." Did the corner of her mouth curl in a smile or is my brain trying to vindicate its actions by lying to my eyes?
"You were following me." The joke was over.
"Only because I thought you were the other you, the taller one. He is- your father? I can see the resemblance, beyond the obvious." Duela replied, there was the look of family, it was in her nose, her jaw, and her eyes, especially her eyes which appraised her with that same predatory glare. Deciding the best way to kill her.
"Better you find me then him, stumbling around so carelessly. You don't follow my father, he prefers to only handle what he is paid to but if you make yourself a nuisance-" the girl paused, was she revealing too much? Slade had made a challenge to Kate when he could have stayed on the edges of the party out of sight.
"-I'm an infamous nuisance." Duela quipped. The girl was wearing a dress and it fitted her firmly, which meant one thing, she was unarmed. On the other hand, Duela was willing to bet Mr Wilson was. Duela realized then that had the girl been armed she might have killed her coming around the corner, a corpse stuffed in the bushes, she ignored the itching around her eyes and mouth, she needed her face.
Maybe if I jammed my kitchen knife into her good eye when she blinks? Duela considered.
"Duela." Her head turned. Kate was walking toward her, she had exchanged her dress for something with pants, smart.. She looked back, Wilson Junior was gone. Fuck.
"I lost him, them, there are two, a girl." She stumbled her heart was beating fast, another second would there have been a fight? Kate walked forward and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Breathe Duela, her name is Ravager, his name is Deathstroke they're assassins." Kate squeezed with a hand that pulled it back. "You did good."
There was someone behind her, younger but tall and athletic like a dancer's body showing through the tailored suit. "I don't know if the bug man is going to approve of bringing kid clown into this." It might have been rude but he looked at her and smiled with the 'everything is going to be okay' smile, it disarmed her but only momentarily.
"Call me a kid again and what I do to you will get me tried in the courts as an adult." He wasn't surprised, he simply raised his eye amused.
"Not now Dick, the big man gave me permission to take care of her my way, no secrets and brooding bullshit. It is trial by fire now. Where is he anyway?"
"You know him, always out there making friends. I'm the backup tonight." They were being very vague for the talk of no secrets and lost, Duela focused instead on what the younger assassin had told her a moment ago.
"If they're assassins, the other one, 'Ravager' mentioned getting paid. They must have a contract here." She finally puzzled out the words. Kate looked at Dick and he met her eyes, something was said with that glance and Kate focused back on her ward.
"Duela, things are going to be dangerous, I would send you home but I can't leave you alone. I need to coordinate with my father in getting the GCPD here. I want you to follow Dick, you and him need to find Slade and hopefully not the corpse he intends to leave behind." Dick nodded and Duela matched it. Kate looked conflicted, then spun on her heel and left- again. Leaving her with 'Dick', with a name like that he must have had a hell of a time in school.
"So Mr. Tall, Dark and with a mysterious past. I imagine you're in charge, do you have a plan? I'd suggest mine but I don't think we have enough time to make a stop at the zoo and I don't even know where we'll get all the helium I need."
"We'll keep yours as a back-up, we need to find and surveil him covertly we split up I'll follow you in hiding and you search the party for him. Something you can manage?"
"Covert like James Bond, or Mission Impossible?"
"Think Jason Bourne."
"Humph. I guess I can do that." She considered and finally agreed to empty air. Dick had disappeared. FUCK. It seemed her evening would be spent losing people, she needed a resolution to not let anyone disappear like that again. Starting as soon as she found someone. Hopefully Dick was watching from whatever shadows he had managed to conceal himself in, it was time to return to the party. The garden was nearly empty and if the target had come out here they were dead and their body sinking to the bottom of the swamp. If they were still alive they and the assassins would be inside. The night was proving to be much more fun than expected!